Take That are Millenium’s fastest-sellers

The band’s latest album had sold just over 990,000 copies by the end of yesterday’s (Thursday, December 18) trading, putting it on course to comfortably pass the 1 million mark today, only its 19th day in stores, according to Official Charts Company statistics.

Its rapid ascent to pass the 1m landmark means ‘The Circus’ is the fastest million-seller of this millennium – and the second fastest million-seller of all time, behind only Oasis’s ‘Be Here Now’.

The band also claim the throne for offering the second biggest selling album of 2008 so far by the end of this week, despite ‘The Circus’s’ short period on sale – as it leapfrogs Coldplay’s ‘Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends’.

Duffy’s ‘Rockferrry’ is the year’s runaway biggest seller so far, with 1.5 million copies sold in 2008 to date. Only a remarkable run for Take That over the last ten shopping days of the year will prevent Duffy from taking the 2008 biggest selling album title.

Official Charts Company managing director Martin Talbot says, “It has been an incredible run for Take That over the past few weeks, which should continue right through to Christmas. The fab foursome have demonstrated once again just how much they are cherished by the great British public.

“They will have to go some to catch and overtake Rockferry and establish The Circus as the biggest selling album of 2008 – but it is not impossible. And, at the current rate of sales, who would put it past them.”